1. Her silicone-enhanced endowments thrust out with authority, this North Beach piano-top dancer rounded out the 1960s, creating a stir. Today finds this celebrated topless entertainer the gracious proprietor of a Union Street lingerie boutique.

a. Lola Montez

b. Christa Speck

c. Carol Doda

2. “Nothing hurts me that I do with hunger and zest.” Longtime San Francisco newspaper columnist Charles “the Fearless Spectator” McCabe found inspiration perched on a bar-stool and was fond of quoting from his favorite French essayist:

a.  Albert Camus

b. Michel de Montaigne

c. Simone de Beauvoir

3. “Cartier and America,” the current exhibition at the Legion of Honor, salutes the “king of jewelers” 100 years of doing business in America.  Among the diamond-studded tiaras, watches, and necklaces are drawings and designs for the ring worn by Ingrid Bergman in her movie portrayal of:

a. Joan of Arc

b. Mary Queen of Scots

c. Madame de Pompadour

4. “In the heart of the Tenderloin sits the Curry Senior Center,” writes Gay Kaplan, executive director of the Curry Senior Center. Its mission is “to provide services that promote independent living while maintaining dignity and self-esteem.” To address issues of isolation, poor nutrition, and substance abuse, the Center at 333 Turk was founded by Dr. Francis J. Curry in:

a. 1849

b. 1939

c. 1972

5. Name the former hospital, constructed in Spanish Renaissance Revival Style in 1928, long since converted into condominiums, scenically located along the south side of Buena Vista Park.

a. Presbyterian Medical Center

b. St. Joseph’s

c. St. Mary’s

6. A lake in Golden Gate Park, popular with Saturday morning model yacht enthusiasts since 1902, honors this Gold Rush–era German immigrant who founded a world-renowned sugar company, eventually taken over by his son Adolph.

a.  Claus Spreckels

b.  Albert Bierstadt

c.  John Augustus Sutter

7. “Just because you drive a nice car, it doesn’t mean you’re rich.” Those words were spoken recently at the Hall of Justice on Bryant Street by:

a. one police officer to another

b. a judge to a defendant caught speeding in
a flashy automobile

c. two chitchatting defendants awaiting trial
in traffic court

8. At the Westin St. Francis in September 2009, an international conference was held to mark the political and historical relevance of the WW II leader who said: “It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion’s heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar!”

a. Colorado Governor Ralph Carr

b. Winston S. Churchill, Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom

c. President Franklin D. Roosevelt

9. Boudin, Parisian, and Larraburu are purveyors of which mouth-watering recipe dating back to the Gold Rush?

10. The current district attorney of San Francisco is the daughter of a breast cancer specialist from India and a Jamaican-American father who teaches Economics at Stanford University. Her name?

Answers

1. c (Carol Doda’s Champagne & Lace, 1850 Union)

2. b (1533–1592)

3. a (1412–1431)

4. c

5. b

6. a (1828–1908, Spreckel’s Lake)

7. c

8. b (1874–1965)

9. sourdough French bread

10. Kamala Harris

Victor Turks grew up in San Francisco and lives in the Richmond with his wife, Michiko, their three boys, a pug, a cat, and a tankful of goldfish. He teaches English at City College.